Nightly Scrap: Big night for big centers
Jonathan Toews and the Chicago Blackhawks finally beat the Edmonton Oilers the way they know they could, via blowout.
Toews would score three followed by Patrick Sharp and Bryan Bickell en route to a 5-0 win over the Oilers. In addition, Marty Turco shutout the opposition and got his first as a Blackhawk while Nikolai Khabibulin allowed four goals for the fourth straight game. Through the Blackhawks first 20 games they only finished with 20 points, a total they desperately look to improve on.
Sadly in Carolina the Hurricanes showed no mercy to the grieving Ottawa Senators. As most mainstream media in Ottawa wondered how exactly the Sens would survive the contest, it became apparent that the team’s heart was elsewhere as they lost 7-1. Eric Staal scored three in the drubbing while linemate Chad LaRose also knocked in two. Cam Ward also bounced back from two poor outings while Brian Elliott has now lost two consecutive games.
In Washington, the Capitals were just good enough to beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2. Amazingly Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green were held scoreless, however Alexander Semin finished with two points while playing on the newly formed second line. Derek Roy and Jordan Leopold scored for the Sabres, who actually out-shot the Caps 33-28.
Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pittsburgh Penguins bounced back from an embarrassing loss on Monday night to defeat Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks. Halfway through the game the Pens led the contest 3-0 and aside from a goal by Dan Hamhuis the Canucks never really got back into it. Before the game Fleury admitted he could not tell the Sedins apart, apparently it did not matter as he held both of them to an assist each.
Back in New York, Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins came back to beat the Rangers 3-2. Thomas once again showed he was capable of stealing a game as he kept the Bruins in the lead late in the game and survived a very active 5-on-3 penalty kill. Milan Lucic, Mark Recchi and Tyler Seguin scored for the B’s while the Rangers countered with Brandon Dubinsky and Marian Gaborik.
Meanwhile in Detroit, Jaroslav Halak lost his fourth straight game, this time against the Red Wings and losing 7-3. Dan Cleary led the way for his team with two goals while Brian Rafalski, Justin Abdelkader, Niklas Kronwall and Pavel Datsyuk each had more than one point. Andy McDonald and Brad Boyes both had good fantasy nights in an otherwise terrible loss. We chose not to add to the embarrassment by showing Halak’s own-goal, for those wondering.
The Columbus Blue Jackets kept the Los Angeles Kings losing last night with an impressive 5-3 win. Returning from a lower body injury, captain Rick Nash scored two goals while watching the third fourth lines do the rest of the scoring. By contrast, Drew Doughty assisted on all three Kings’ goals, which were scored by their second powerplay unit and second and third lines.
Due to time restraints we will not be going over the rest of the games. Here is a very brief rundown: The Phoenix Coyotes delivered the Calgary Flames their third straight loss… Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning won giving new coach Jack Capuano and the New York Islanders their 11th straight loss… The Atlanta Thrashers lost to the Florida Panthers and lost one of their leaders in Dustin Byfuglien… The Minnesota Wild sqeaked by the Anaheim Ducks and Curtis McElhinney, winning 2-1… The offensively charged Colorado Avalanche outscored the San Jose Sharks 4-3, with the overtime winning going to Kevin Porter.
That just about wraps up a full night of hockey. Be sure to check us all day as we bring you the most relevant fantasy hockey news possible. You can follow us on twitter @dailyfaceoff as we continue to bring you information on starting goalies, team lineups and major injury updates as well as provide in-depth injury updates and player rankings in the future.